2025 Recruiting: Meleek Thomas Watch

[Deleted at users request]

You didn’t follow my point. My point was that guys like Castle, Clingan, and Hawkins came in at a certain recruiting ranking or level. They left at much higher levels. They outperformed where their recruiting rankings were, meaning they improved while they were here. It doesn’t mean a lot when a top 5 McDonald’s All American goes in the lottery. Weren’t they kind of expected to with that ranking? Did they actually get better?

If you were a top player what’s more important to you, where you get drafted relative to your recruiting ranking or how you actually perform in the NBA?

 

[Mooch82]

you can also say "now do Bouknight". From the eyes of a recruit, it's hard to argue, Cal's guys get to the NBA, they get 2nd and 3rd contracts, they make All Star and All NBA games. His issues werenever tied to recruiting, it's been in game "coaching".

Huh? Bad example here. Bouk was a top 60ish recruit and was drafted 11th overall after 2 years at UConn. Harrison twins and Edwards were 5 star players who went undrafted.

 

[Deleted at users request]

you can also say "now do Bouknight". From the eyes of a recruit, it's hard to argue, Cal's guys get to the NBA, they get 2nd and 3rd contracts, they make All Star and All NBA games. His issues werenever tied to recruiting, it's been in game "coaching".

Yeah it’s hard to argue the success of Cal’s players in the NBA. His actual X’s and O’s coaching is not good though (you can be a great developer and bad with X’s and O’s and vice versa).

Recruits just have to weigh which is more important. Saying a recruit is making a bad life choice going to play for him is just not true though.

 

[navery12]

Now do Justin Edwards and the Harrison twins.

That is irrelevant to the claim you made, "It doesn’t mean a lot when a top 5 McDonald’s All American goes in the lottery". He has guys underperform every year and has guys overperform every year. This year he had some of both

 

[TheHorde]

That is irrelevant to the claim you made, "It doesn’t mean a lot when a top 5 McDonald’s All American goes in the lottery". He has guys underperform every year and has guys overperform every year. This year he had some of both

He’s had some successes and some failures that is true. Do you think Hurley has done more with less in a manner of speaking?

 

[TheHorde]

If you were a top player what’s more important to you, where you get drafted relative to your recruiting ranking or how you actually perform in the NBA?

Improving would matter to me. Hurley and his staff from Bouknight on have had guys improve while they were here.

 

[KemBuckets21]

Huh? Bad example here. Bouk was a top 60ish recruit and was drafted 11th overall after 2 years at UConn. Harrison twins and Edwards were 5 star players who went undrafted.

where you are as a recruit does not necessarily correlate to where you are drafted, guys overperform/underperform, the Non US players entering the draft push the US/Ranked HS players down. It's a silly exercise.

Also as we've seen the consensus tends to be w/r/t the 10- 10-20 players and then the rest of the top 100 is more or less interchangeable. We've heard from Dan and Coach Calhoun, they themselves pay little attention to rankings because they have their own evaluation processes.

 

[TheHorde]

I'm too lazy to do a statistical analysis but all of the UConn players drafted in the last three years have outperformed their rankings in HS or the portal.

That is definitely not true of Cal.

Listen I’m too harsh on Cal because I think he’s a cheater and a scumbag. I definitely do not feel a need to wave pompoms for him. He’s had some big successes and some big failures if you go back and trace the last 10-11 years of recruiting and performance. Hurley doesn’t have a long resume here yet but he’s had 4 guys go in the lottery, above their incoming rankings, and in most cases, well above their incoming rankings. Bouknight was largely just outside the top 50 in the rankings. I’d anticipate that trend to continue particularly with Liam and Stewart next spring. And guys like Sanogo and Andre are showing that what they were taught here was valuable and plays at the next level.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Improving would matter to me. Hurley and his staff from Bouknight on have had guys improve while they were here.

So you’re saying you would point to Bouknight on what your future would look like from playing at UConn?

(My bad back to Meleek after this post)

 

[bendm]

I wonder if there's a Moneyball aspect to how this is playing out. Like, has Hurley prioritized going a little bigger on relatively modest NIL money for high-impact transfers (Spencer, Newton, Mahaney) and returnees (Clingan, Karaban) over astronomical NIL money for high-profile recruits?

If so, hard to argue with the results so far.

We Still needed castle to win it all last year tho, against Bama in particular. And Liam might be our most talented player this year. So we still need high profile recruits but only those willing to take the “Hurley discount.” Seeming like Meleek is not one of those guys but hopefully Mullins is, and Ament and Cenac…

 

[navery12]

He’s had some successes and some failures that is true. Do you think Hurley has done more with less in a manner of speaking?

Of course, which is completely irrelevant to any discussion happening. I think Hurley is the best coach in college basketball. That doesn't mean every other coach sucks

 

[awy]

cal does suck as a coach. but he's a recruiter.

 

[TheHorde]

Of course, which is completely irrelevant to any discussion happening. I think Hurley is the best coach in college basketball. That doesn't mean every other coach sucks

I think he’s a great recruiter. Not nearly as good of an in game coach. But we agree on Hurley.

 

[KemBuckets21]

Hurley and staff are unequivocally the best HC and Staff in the country in terms of preparation, creative scheming and maximizing player potential/development.

Cal is a good recruiter and his pitch of making a player and his family generationally wealthy is easy, but effective. Combine that with what seems to be the biggest NIL budget in the country, he'll continue to pull talent into Arkansas and get guys to the league.

 

[bendm]

Hurley and staff are unequivocally the best HC and Staff in the country in terms of preparation, creative scheming and maximizing player potential/development.

Cal is a good recruiter and his pitch of making a player and his family generationally wealthy is easy, but effective. Combine that with what seems to be the biggest NIL budget in the country, he'll continue to pull talent into Arkansas and get guys to the league.

I thought that Cal leaving UK meant one less program to compete with for 5*s but Pope still has UK in contention for these guys and now we have to deal with Ark as well. Whoops.

 

[KemBuckets21]

Yeah, wonder why the chicken man didn't give musselman the same budget he gave Cal. I don't think Cal's recruiting model is hard to replicate.

 

[awy]

it's a power law situation, success breeds success because he has the reputation and connections. it's like how schools attract undergrads, not necessarily by teaching quality.

 

[QuickDraw]

Buddy, if you think college sports were ever pure and good...

I know it was corrupted before but at least there was a semblance of amateurism, now that it's done there will never be a way to shove that crap back in the horse. It will be the demise of college athletics imo.

 

[TheHorde]

So you’re saying you would point to Bouknight on what your future would look like from playing at UConn?

(My bad back to Meleek after this post)

Do you think that’s more on Bouknight and what’s between his ears, or on Hurley and how he was developed here? And no I’d say Clingan, Andre, Spencer, Sanogo, Hawkins, and Castle are more representative.

 

[NJHoops]

Kind of. Heard for months it was a done deal. Now a wait and see.

Any talk of a “done deal” was not accurate.

 

[navery12]

I know it was corrupted before but at least there was a semblance of amateurism, now that it's done there will never be a way to shove that crap back in the horse. It will be the demise of college athletics imo.

Why should I care that now kids are getting their $2M paycheck above the table instead of under the table?

 

[RuffRuff]

We Still needed castle to win it all last year tho, against Bama in particular. And Liam might be our most talented player this year. So we still need high profile recruits but only those willing to take the “Hurley discount.” Seeming like Meleek is not one of those guys but hopefully Mullins is, and Ament and Cenac…

But did we? We were slaughtering teams. I could argue a seasoned up Solo would have kept us a favorite. We certainly wouldn’t have been as good, but even 4-8 points less good still may take it.

 

[HooperScooper]

Why should I care that now kids are getting their $2M paycheck above the table instead of under the table?

I don't think any recruits were getting $2 million before NIL.

 

[bendm]

But did we? We were slaughtering teams. I could argue a seasoned up Solo would have kept us a favorite. We certainly wouldn’t have been as good, but even 4-8 points less good still may take it.

Impossible to say for sure but I’m certainly glad we did. We were only up 4 at half. Castle was our leading scorer with 21 in that game and he was our best perimeter defender as usual.

 

[UCTitleTown]

Better to know he's following the $$$ sooner than later. No interested in getting Dialloed.

 

[navery12]

I don't think any recruits were getting $2 million before NIL.

Then use a different arbitrary number that floats your boat. The point is these kids were getting paid before NIL, the only difference is now the numbers are public

 

[KingAG]

HOT TAKE!!

Disclaimer: I'd be super excited if we got a Meleek Thomas commitment.

Hot Take: I like Acaden Lewis the basketball player a lot more for our Huskies

 

[EBonz30]

I understand this kid is a Uber talent & that a lot of you are in love with his game- with that said- I don’t think his offensive game is a great fit for Hurley & the Huskies- to me he’s much more of a creator & scorer & guy who breaks you down off the dribble- a guy who needs to ball in his hands- that style of offense is typically not conducive to what we run here. His game aligns much more with Ala Eric Mussleman’s offense. Of course I would be happy to see him as a Husky, but won’t be upset or down if he goes somewhere else.

 

[gsmooth]

Any talk of a “done deal” was not accurate.

This is 100% on the money. It's why I was not overjoyed when lots of people here were celebrating Meleek was a done deal. It's not a done deal until it's actually done-I don't care what Crystal Ball predictions say. These same predictions had Adama Sanogo going to Seton Hall at 90%. We know where he ended up and are thankful to the Basketball Gods it turned out the way it did. Kevin Willard, Seton Hall's coach at the time, was very upset and so were Seton Hall fans.

 

[Drame]

I understand this kid is a Uber talent & that a lot of you are in love with his game- with that said- I don’t think his offensive game is a great fit for Hurley & the Huskies- to me he’s much more of a creator & scorer & guy who breaks you down off the dribble- a guy who needs to ball in his hands- that style of offense is typically not conducive to what we run here. His game aligns much more with Ala Eric Mussleman’s offense. Of course I would be happy to see him as a Husky, but won’t be upset or down if he goes somewhere else.

No but I think Hurley would love to have the option of a guy being able to break his man down and get his own shot in certain situations. Makes us less predictable. It's another tool and weapon to utilize.